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Diary of Kardan
Gallowglass / Retinue of Inquisitor Gallowglass / Kardan the Lost Sniping on the water Well in the last view days it seems I honed my sharpshooter-skills a bit. Not that there were any real targets to be found - fast moving objects like those in the templum - but it feels like I improved anyway. So far for the good news, now sports ... as we arrived at that emperorforsaken town we came in with two team-members heavy wounded. It´s a strange band of fighters I was chosen to purge the enemy of mankind at the fringe of the galaxy we call our home. Home - what a strange word. Where is that? Voidborn - born on a vessel in the vast nothing between the stars I guess for me it´s everywhere and no place at all. I drifted from one world to another. Constant traveling, first to ship foreign goods, now I ship my own piece of trade but always for the greater good of mankind and the Emperor. Whats that ruckus about? Oh, trice damned chaos, my backpack´s open. Who picked my pack? ... Warp Stories The thief shot and my knife back in place we tried to get some sleep when that bloody sister tried some warp-trick to fix her broken leg. Never told us about her ability. So no wonder at all, she nearly get shot by the desert-man but not before he mumbled something about daemons a little bit too loud. Of course that ruse some of the sentries - bad for them. It doesn´t sit well with me to kill some brave men doing their duty. The warp always brings trouble of some sort. My advice: never mess with it. After that it took us a two day walk along the wall to get to the places where foul occult things were told to took place. Bones talked us through guards and managed to get us a infantryman as local guide. Well done. First positive occurrence since landfall. At the scene I discovered some scratches at the door frame overlooked by an earlier investigation. Warp-sister took in the scent or as she put it the absence of it - namely the warp. The building had only one floor and as I later discovered a hidden cellar. The rooms were a bloody mess. Something ate the living alive but had no table-manners at all. Dessert-man and metal-boy were not able to enter at all. As i told you before, after a while i found the hidden door in the floor. By this time Sirhan had overcome his horror and soon I will find mine. It should take years before I could fight it back. But first things first. I crept down the wooden ladder and found a storage filled with crates holding tradeables. A strange scent was in the air so desert-man and I searched the small room some more to discover four packages made of some local leaf. By the look of it we assumed cocoons. Cautious I opened one with my knife. Sirhan aimed his shotgun all the time at the disgusting thing. As I cut deeper it popped open. The last thing I saw was the head of a dead child than it exploded under a well aimed shot of guarding Sirhan. Gory fuselage sprayed over me and in my mouth. As I was told later I started to scream and ran out of the house only to lay in the streets for a few minutes - an eternity for me - heaving and trying to get some air into my burning lungs. I guess I will hate cocoonlike things the rest of my life. We burned the cellar with a phosphor grenade to make sure nothing will survive in that hellhole. Taking shelter in a nearby tavern we took watches over the night. Internal Affairs Night went by without further incident. No one tried to make eye contact and I preferred it that way. We walked back to the building and found it guarded but there was no subtlety in it as we ordered yesterday. First I thought Sirhan would shoot them right away. But he tamed his temper and made him self very clear as what he wanted the guards to do. I tried to made myself scarce to watch the surrounding and went round the building scouting. Meanwhile Sister Mary tried to locate the abnormalities in the warp she identified yesterday. As I told we believed them to lead us straight to our query. But as she told me later the bubbles bubbled her psykerbrain and we changed bodies. Yes, we changed bodies! The hell I care you believe me! It is the worst you can possibly imagine. So I was were Warp-Sisters body was and she was were I staggered, namely at far side of the building I observed. What I did? I bruised my hand destroying a window reflecting myself and went to find that crazy bitch wearing my body. She babbled about bubbles and some other shit. I would have shot her point blank if it was not my body I would shoot at. I was stopped by sounds of fighting around the corner. It was very hard for me to blank out my hatred but in the end we changed weapons and ran after the fight. Well, it was over the moment we arrived. Desert-Man and Metal-Guy had made a prisoner as had Lady Silver-Tongue. As we directed both to a backyard for interrogation all the fun of changing bodies started again. But now I was back in my own again. It was the happiest moment since planetfall. Curse that world of water and mud! I believe the moment Warp-Sister and I changed bodies, Sirhan got hit by some invisible club. Since that moment he started to behave uncoordinated. But more on that later. Our prisoners turned out to be spies of Knights Of What Ever - I can not remember their name. So we were brought to those knights headquarter in Olrankan. An interesting turn of fate I can assure you. First we met the commander in charge of the knights Sir Engert in that war shaken town and by that we met his puppeteer, a lady calling herself Lady Calahir Of the White Tower. The Lady was a psyker, a powerful in fact. She tried to lure us in whatever schema she was up to. Sweet words were exchanged to my discomfort and it was clear to me we would never get what we wanted: full cooperation. So I decided it was time to make us public. It worked for now. we got more information about the incidents we were here to investigate. We interrogated them separated. Sir Engert was or played a willing servant of the Emperor while Lady Calahir was eloquent enough to give us no hint of her secret agenda as we believe she was following. Cut the interrogation short we found out that there was a library in existence holding many answers to our question. Second we were enlightened that our lady was a well known guest on both sides of the blustering war and the good knights were an institution with a global scope of activity. Third and most perturbing Lady Calahir knows much more about the Imperium Of Men than a medieval world would normally allow her to. Fourth and last we got a name and some obscure description of the things that murder so scrupulously on Acreage. The murders took place every hundred years. It all starts by a hail of meteors. Those were harbingers of bad omen and disaster. As legend has it uprisings and war more intensely than in other times start. Then the ritual murdering takes place two or three weeks after the meteors hit planet. History will have it nine sacrifices will take place. After that its over. Until now the knights under the guidance of a Lady Of The White Tower contain the disaster in a way economy and everyday life could go on after some time. The enemy of men in case is a species called the Lithe by the knights. They were described as some worm-like xenos with highly developed obfuscation devises. When in plain view they disguise in monk-like hooded robes. The devises enable them to prey on those poor individuals we found in the basement yesterday. By the way it was not the first site of entombment we were told. As a matter of fact the xenos-breed not only murder in ritual ways. It seems that they also take away the bodies of the dead killed in the many battles. It seems they stage the battles and riots on a planet wide scale to harvest the fallen for whatever dark purpose. All that information was gathered in a few hours of interrogation of Lady Calahir and Sir Engert. As stated before many questions remained unanswered and we had to dig much deeper to find the truth. Now a few words to my colleges. As time went by Sirhan was singleminded on one goal: kill the Lady. Remember that I said he must have got hit? Warp-Sis heard about the library. Since that moment she was confident in finding all the answers there. And Metal-Guy was with Sand-Man. Silver-Tongue was silent all the time for reasons she would not share with us. To my disappointment not one second it seemed it crossed their mind to cross-interrogate our victims. I am by far not the smooth-talker of that band of troublemakers we represent but the total lack of insight in a moment so crucial as that is the most annoying thing I will remember Emperor willing I survive this mission. Wrath of the Emperor As was our wish Sir Engert brought us to the library. Escorted by knights of the order we entered a tunnel of old roughly drilled into stone and earth far below the fortifications of Olrankan. The sounds of battle were lost to us. Approximately thirty minutes later a strange sound reverberated in the close quarters we walk along. As we were told it is the emanating holiness of the sacred place and therefore the Emperor himself we were about to enter. I will spare you the details of every so-called wonder we were about to discover. In short it was a poorly maintained commando station back from the times the great Drusus liberated this part of the galaxy. As technology rotted away the locals tried to fix it with devotion but unbelievable ignorance. They called the place "Mandol Temple". The fading imperial painting on the walls of the entrance told once "Commando I". About that we were sure. Nowadays only "mando I" was readable which the locals translated to "Mandol". As we discovered the functioning but dangerously unmaintained reactor, we were told a story a mixture of unbelievable ignorance and selfless devotion alike. The locals thought the radioactivity leaking through the cracks of rusty radiation-locks and long out of service devices the unwavering light of the emperor. They worshiped the dangerous parts of their temple only by the old ones who were thought to have gone long over the zenith of their lifetime. In the end they were taken by the light and by that called forth to The Emperor himself. We found the real documentation center of "Commando I" now used as a training facility. But Tonus Ferreus could feel a slumbering part of the former machine-spirit inside ancient instruments. That gave us hope to find something else in here. Something like imperial maps, maybe even weapons. What we found was so much more we hoped for. As we entered the conference room of the order, we recognized the battle-stations command-facility. As with all the other rooms and gangways it was decorated with devotional sign, brocade and paintings of local hierarchs all of which were ignorantly nailed to, painted over or fixed in some other way to devices designed to fight the enemies of the Imperium. Tonus and I rushed forward to search for navigational instruments and instruments of communications. We were rewarded in a way we never dared to dream of. The Omnissiahs was present in his tools and his servants ready to collaborate. An ancient spirit of technology was waiting to be called to service by Tonus. When I snapped out of my excitement, reality hit hard. I could not believe how ignorant you have to be to ignore the obvious. What I am talking about? I talk about Lady Calahir and the way the rest of the retinue treated her. The stubborn son of sand, my assassin-colleague as well as that bloody warp sis were determined the Lady was a treat to whom ever. I believed, based on the findings of Tanisha Bones, she could have killed us hours before namely in the tunnel we all came her. So I decided to take my chances. I took Lady Calahir on a walk on the gangway running around the command-facility. I frankly told her about the mood of my colleagues I was very confident she knew about. I admitted to her that I gave a damn thing about it. To fulfill my contract I was willing to ask her to cooperate with me in that special case as I thought the rest of the group will do the same if - and only if - I could win their trust in that matter. To tell the truth, I told her I do not believe her disguise. She was desperate or calculating enough - my confidence is in the later - to cooperate with me under one condition. She reveals her true self and I guarantee for her wellbeing. As long as the truth is on both sides I told her I was willing to make the vow. As we honored our pact she revealed her true appearance. She was an Eldar, a sword-mistress by the way, who stranded centuries ago on Acreage. In the ages great Drusus made his military appearance in this part of the galaxy the Eldar fought side by side against the Slaught or Slith as the locals called them. But her ship crashed on Acreage. The late Lady of the White Tower took her in and healed her. To honor this act of selflessness Lady Calahir took the oath to liberated the planet from the abominations of the Slaught. As we came around in full circle on the gangway I called everyone to the center of the command-room and told them a shorter and as I felt appropriate version of Lady Calahirs story not before I stealthily readied my sidearm. During the next few minutes of noise that were made by my colleagues my new ally drew a hasty scratch of a Slaught. Just for my record, and mine only, I have to admit, I was surprised how emotional some of us could get if they feel out of control of the situation. Unprofessional at best, untrustworthy at least, dangerous at the worst but useful information leaked through cracks of mental defense. Well, as I thought in the end it all went according to my plan. In the absence of evidence or proof and Lady Calahiers gesture of good-will - she dropped her disguise - we came to layout a masterplan. Tonus found something very very useful: a planetary defense-canon. To take a short-cut, our metal-head found not only that delicate tool of destruction but also a high-frequency vox-caster and an imperial armory. As we shifted through the layout of old "Commando I" we located a landing cavity nowadays used as the great library of Templum Mandol. Sirhan and I went for the armory. I like Sandys determination but sometimes I think he should use some neuro-enhancing drugs on a regular bias. The armory was in worse condition and as every numb-ass can imagine by firebombing it, it would not get any better. To credit his undertaking he thought the spores of the fungi poisonous. What ever number of weapons were lost, we could evacuate three standard-issue lasguns and six ammopacks. Everything else was either burned or ... burned. Purge the fungi no matter what! In a save deposit box obviously resitant to firebombing we found a holy relict. We found the Holy Boltpistol of great Drusus fully functional, loaded and two spare clips. For I am the best shooter I was very honored as the group decided to hand it to me. A strange feeling took hold of me. A spark of a legacy old as the weapon itself sprang to live. I felt the responsibility to take up the holy crusade great Drusus undertook once and purge the contradictions of the Imperium from Acreage. A honor I would use as a shield to defend The Emperor. The masterplan was to make contact with our ship and its astropath. The ships Modar could precisly locate time and coordinates of the meteorites. The astropaths task was to pinpoint the absence of the warp which is typical for our enemy. Moreover we ordered the ships shuttle to our assistance in case Tonus Ferreus was unable to hit the hostile spacecraft. We would need the lander to relay us to whatever location the enemy would make planetfall. Through Sir Engert Lady Calahier ordered the Knights to search Olrancan with all manpower the Ordo could muster. It all went as planed. The meteors hit atmo in the very same night. We watched them on a display on command station and were able to decipher the flares made by the meteors and the one that would betrayed the ship of the Slaught. A millisecond later we got the coordinates the night went blindingly bright. A beam of energy cut through the silence. The sound of burning oxygen and the last breath of a machine-spirit made us squeeze. But the ship was hit with deadly force. As soon as we confirmed the lethal hit we borded our own vessel. I am proud to say that I saved the first part of the night by navigating us safely back to Olrancan. But that was all I could do. The involuntarily shortcut down the robe exiting the vessel left me near dead in the healing hands of Lady Calahir and brought me an opportunity that changed my life forever. Rebirth I woke and it woke with me or shall I say it woke and took me along? What ever the truth it is set in durasteel and alloy. A wonder of the Omnissiahs and a casket for the living dead. I will live forever preserved in technology cradled in the wisdom of the god of technology. And in that I am reduced to what I could have never became over the last years of training. A soulless back of flesh I was and now the flesh is gone I am. It made me weep for no training can remove so clinically and determined the weakness of flesh one reveals in as the Brotherhood of Mars. I am stripped to the naked core to be reborn as some time-ignoring god-made beast of holy knowledge. I am a saint of the Omnissiahs, an apostle of technology. The wrath of the Machine-God. The manifestation of an unforgiving old bustard messing around even with The Emperor himself. First I was trained to be some cold-hearted unscrupulous hitter on behalf of whoever was willing to pay the Templum. Now I am some heartless calculating casket with a brain to understand those who will rot away eventually for in flesh is only weakness and in weakness is only decay. There are only a few strings to hold my fragile mind in strains of sanity. The first is that I can remember. It is nothing but bolstering. It pains so hard it vanquish the abyss of binary chatter that I am teased to let me fall in. The second is a thing I sought lost weeks ago on a planet called Acreage. A part of the legacy of great Drusus himself, his Holy Boltpistol. I have a third arm permanently holding the sacred item. In some twisted way that new limb is sensible to my minds command as it were one of my old ones. The arm is concealed in my back so the holy item is my secret and my guiding light in the wars to wage for The Omnissiahs in the name of The Emperor of Mankind. Oh, how I can imagine His loneliness on his Golden Throne. I prey to him to lend me His strength and His clear vision to do his bidding. And then there is Tonus Ferreus. He who made me live through the darkness to be resurrected as the wrath of the Machine-God. He was with me in the first moments of consciousness. I calculate it as a matter of fact, that he kept me focused enough to fight for my sanity. As to now I am on my way to the Offico Assassinorum training facility. I will be transfered to Templum Eversor for flesh is not what I am made of any longer. Mechanization Consciousness crackled back bit by bit. First face I recognized was that of Tonus Ferreus. Well I wonder what the trice damed chaos brought him here. The Templum is not one to trifle with. As I saw the carefully crafted band around his left arm I knew that not only the Cult of the Omnissiah gained a new member lately. Maybe I will discuss this later. Tonus was eager to see me again, guess he sees me as his new toy. Fine with me as far as I can play my own game and I will see to that. So we spent some time in the Templums Workshop. As we left, my chassis was more then 15 pounds heavier and our purses more than 1200 throne gelt lighter. But I´m confident my next opponent will be surprised if he can spot me at all. We met our troupes at the "Path Of Holiness". The cyborg in Tonus wake made quite an appearance and more surprised whispers as it stated to be the late Kardan. But in the end they all welcomed me back and it was business all the same. New to me was a priest introducing himself as Kilian Athanasius Kerensky. There was an obvious tension between Holy and Sands as the later laid out the meager details of our next assignment given to him by Sagisville himself. All the news Sandman could tell us was the targets name and his last considered but not confirmed position - the hive-world Scintilla. Four days short of our journey we tried to get a better fix on our target. After all we have to extract him discretely before a heretic group could do the same. It seems that informations floating to us through some vary narrow pipes because we got practically no informations at all. Only thing beside the targets name was a hair of her. Something Warp-Sis used to focus her troubled mind to find the owner in question. But no results so far. A four-day search through the Cogitators by Metal-Head brought us no further knowledge. We landed on one of the many Spaceports Scintilla hosts. In comparison to my last mission this is like the cradle of civilization itself. The spaceports vast anthems were filled with thousands of individuals, thin clouds blocked the view searching the roof. Warp-Sis tried one of her spooks but too many souls blurred her vision she told us. We decided to find some accommodations on Scintilla and domiciliated at "Eternal Star Accommodations" near administrative district. As fees were payed and rooms moved into we gathered reviewing options. As discussion got on I became more and more astonished both about lag of informations and power-struggles within participants. If you ask me we lost precious time by that. Holy and Sands are uneasy about the decision made by our leaders. Not to send us here with so little information - my believe is, that there is more data to find if you only know how dig in sand if you know what I mean - but the way how it was delivered to us. Namely through Sirhan and not as it should be through Kilian as he was voted for leadership in my absence. A problematic decision if you ask me, because as I see it, Father Kerensky has a hard enough time to keep his sheeps in line. He should be our religious backbone, not some earthly leader. Who our leader should be I´m uncertain of. Sirhan is a good and capable soldier and battle-proofed but he displays not enough power to make strategic decisions unopposed. We tried Tonus as well I was told, but he is to green to handle some strong-willed individuals like Karensky or Sirhan. Well, and that´s it. Bones is not interested in neither she wants to be overridden to hard. That gives her the creeps as I remember our first mission. Sister Mary is a useful tool to all of us as I´m sure I am, but no leader at all so far. Me? No. To much trouble. As I said before, there is a power-struggle loose in our group and as long as that is not settled in one or another way I will sit and wait. Not that there is much time, in fact. There is too small an amount to wait. My training needs all the concentration I could muster. So I watch and learn and exercise and watch and learn and exercise a little more. I will be the righteous blade the Omnissiah forges in the name of Him - my beloved Emperor. Secrets and Suspicions Silver-Tongue arrived by a vessel of her own. She told us Helena withdrew her from our party to make her our rear-guard in case we were followed to Scintilla. As a matter of fact we were followed by some unidentified ship. Later it became clear it was manned with one of retinue-members. Father Kilian came up with a strategic plan we all got comfortable with. Splitting us in three parties, team Alpha was Holy himself and Sand-Man - later referred as Aladdin not only he chose his new identity named after some desert folks but of secrets he kept from us until it was clear we were cornered in every possible way - , team Beta were Warp-Sis, Silver-Tongue and Fish-Boy, team Gamma was Metal-Guy and me. Category:Gallowglass